The Saturday Morning Rush

I remember going to the cinema when I was about 7 years old; whatever was on there was always a massive queue. In the end we were pleased just to get a seat. All of those cinema goers from my childhood turned up at Great End on Saturday. In fact a few of them looked like they were hoping to star or be extras in a mountain epic of some sort…..

Busy day on Great End

Check out the guy at the top of the picture. He used his left knee more than his crampon. Eventually his left crampon fell off, probably out of disgust at it’s underuse. We saw a queue on SouthEast Gully of about 10 people at the first bottle-neck, with a wait of about an hour to move. There were tangled ropes, ropes getting stood on and woeful technique. Its no wonder a lot of people end up getting the big yellow bus home from the cinema.

Anna approaches a busy Great End

Despite that we had a good day, and headed back to Grange to do a couple of maintenance jobs before a fruitless shopping tour of Keswick………. oh, and no cakes!

6 thoughts on “The Saturday Morning Rush”

Not sure I understand the yellow bus stuff; not a feature of my childhood…
But – wow, awesome job – two trips to Great End! 😛 Good on ya! That’s 200% more ice climbing action than I’ve managed. 🙁
Is that Central Gully again? 😕

No cakes!!!!! What are you guys playing at???? I thought you were serious climbers.

But really… well done you two.
I heard a bunch of people talking about Great End at the climbing wall on Thursday night. A popular spot.
We started out towards Dove Crag today which looked pretty quiet, but Pete’s heel forced us back before we got very far. Oh well. We managed a day doing extreme gardening instead.

Will be out again somewhere this week if Jon makes it back from snow-holing in Scotland……..
The big yellow bus is a vague reference to the rescue helicopter 🙄 , sorry you didn’t get it 😥 😥
I wanted cake…………. Anna wouldn’t let me 🙁

The day started poorly:
1. a bad night’s sleep meaning I was v tired; probably as a result of this
2. I forgot my contact lenses;
3. the loos at Seathwaite were locked with shiny new padlocks!! Nul points to the National Trust.
4. I hated the walk-in! Not used to mountain routes any more….

It was quite hard seeing my way to get over the top of the route with spindrift-clogged specs. Yes, spindrift; it was just like the Cairngorms on top! If Andy Kirkpatrick can lead routes in specs I supposed I could too.

However I can now say I have done my first “proper” winter route for some years – as opposed to ice falls. Mountain routes are surely the real thing?
(Sorry Terry 🙂 )

Yeah, we vote mountain routes.
However, as you know, the Sterling’s do love to get up late, and we also enjoy the cake&tea shop before and after the route… so maybe a vote for the ice falls is in order.